“I was like, ‘You know what, I need to go in a direction where I can be taken more seriously, and then I can also change the conversation with the stuff that I’m saying.'”Īfter changing his stage name, Carriér dropped Let That Marinate at the end of 2015, a more bass-heavy, danceable mixtape than There’s Been a Change of Plans. “When I was there, I just had a weird energy when I was introducing myself to people,” he explained, adding that Smoovie Baby no longer felt representative of who he was, especially when meeting prominent industry figures at the fest. A revelation at South by Southwest last year prompted him to make the switch.
Still, he rose to considerable regional acclaim, and even nabbed a coveted spot on the rap blog ‘s then-annual Bay Area Freshman list in 2012 (Thizzler discontinued its Freshman list in 2014).īut Carriér said that, eventually, he felt like he wasn’t quite being true to himself, so he made the tough decision to start anew. These made for fun party music, but they weren’t quite distinct enough to set him apart from the other members of the collective. With IAMSU, Sage, and P-Lo - another prominent HBK Gang rapper and producer - handling much of his production, Smoovie Baby’s early work consisted mostly of hyphy-influenced club bangers. Sage eventually joined IAMSU’s music collective, HBK Gang, and the group’s influence was palpable in Carriér’s music as Smoovie Baby. Bay Area rap star Sage the Gemini is from the same town, and the two of them started collaborating early on. He was born in San Francisco and raised in Fairfield, a Solano County suburb north of Vallejo. This lyrical depth is a marked departure from Carriér’s work in earlier stages of his career. “Decisions,” a duet with R&B singer Khyenci Tienne, is rife with poignant observations about how trust issues can break a relationship: They say when you love someone / You ‘posed to take all their flaws and embrace ’em / So many memories, I’m talkin’ terabytes / Why you so quick to erase ’em? On “Focused,” a hustling anthem, he shares candid reflections on raising a daughter with autism. Self-reflective yet confident and sometimes cocky, Carriér’s confessional, stream-of-consciousness raps touch upon a variety of autobiographical subjects. “I was putting out raunchy material just to see what people would say, whereas now I want to share my experiences in life,” he explained. He added that as he got older, he began to draw more from his personal life for his lyrics as opposed to relying on shock value. “My music was extremely misogynistic, one hundred percent,” he said, explaining the thought process behind his recent reinvention. Carriér’s lyrical, introspective work departs from the party rap he created as Smoovie Baby.
And there’s an emotional quality that sets it apart from his previous work as Smoovie Baby, the moniker that the 29-year-old artist retired last year after using it for over a decade.Ĭhanges of Plans reveals the cracks in the cool-guy façade of Carriér’s previous output - and this newfound vulnerability is one of the album’s strengths.
His flows assume the foreground over downtempo, understated beats, and he delivers introspective verses flush with offhand insights that analyze his personal struggles. His raps on There’s Been a Change of Plans, the surprise album the Bay Area artist dropped earlier this month, are pensive, tense.
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